For Christmas Eve, the family decided to stop by "Bob's World" in Pleasanton, the home of Bob Stanley, longtime Pleasanton resident who has been creating ever-more elaborate holiday decorations outside his home for the past 20 years.

What impresses you most about Bob's World is in the sheer AMOUNT of lighted Santas, reindeer, snowmen, cascading lights, icicles and candy canes he blankets his house with. It's completely dazzling. His garage is filled with Christmas dolls and stuffed animals. And in his backyard, Bob has built two holiday dioramas running the length of his house. One is a huge nativity set that you see a video of above, and the other is an entire wintery village scene with hundreds of minature skiiers, skaters, and merry-makers. It's kind of ridiculous and awesome.

The impressiveness comes from the excess of it all. The question you hear repeated again and again by the visitors is, "How much do you think Bob's electric bill is?" That said, there is also a good amount of technical know-how in how he has synchronized the lights with the soundtrack of Christmas music playing every night. And the laser light display in the front of the house must have taken some programming know-how.

Speaking of lasers, Bob's World really makes me wish I had the know-how to decorate our house in TRON-y Christmas style.